‘John Doe’ DNA indictment upheld

The Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that a “John Doe” rape indictment, including a DNA profile, was valid.

Defendant Jerry Dixon argued that the indictment should be dismissed as untimely because he was not identified as the perpetrator until after the expiration of the statute of limitations.

But the SJC disagreed.

“Where a general John Doe indictment, bereft of any particularity, must fail as generally anonymous, the converse is true of a DNA indictment: it prevails as precisely eponymous,” Justice Robert J. Cordy wrote for a unanimous court.